"The entire man is, so to speak, to be seen in
the cradle of the child."

"The growth of nations presents something
analogous to this; they all bear some marks
of their origin. The circumstances that
accompanied their birth and contributed to
their development affected the whole term
of their being."

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835

The Stage

Separation and contact, hostility and cooperation, miscegenation and
marriage, confronting and gaming, riots and counterrevolts: a history of
continuous and seemingly repetitious opposites characterizes the nature of
race behavior in American society. Like the colors of black and white, the
interaction between the two major races in the United States has been
marked by polarities. Living together/apart reflects the social order which has
been an integral part of the culture from the earliest contact between the
African and English. What was past remains consistently present; what was
then affects us now.

Opposites also characterize the motivations of those who migrated to the
eastern seaboard in the seventeenth century. For many years Europeans
viewed the unexplored lands in the Western Hemisphere with enormous
expectations and imagined dangers. Within the sparsely settled territory was
the opportunity to escape from structure, restrictions and withholding ideas.
Conversely, within the sparsely settled territory was the chance to replant
traditional structures, institutions, and ideas. Freedom and fear, purpose and
the gamble were feelings and motives which crisscrossed and contradicted
each other.

Complex and diverse communities reflected the variety of personal
commitments and backgrounds in the colonial period. Communities were not
monolithic but relatively open and dynamic. The English "had moved farther
along than any other Western power toward conceiving of colonies, not as
exploitative bands of transient men, but as permanent, self-sustaining
communities," wrote Lawrence Cremin in his authoritative work on

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